In the discreet little Key West bar that Jake Stonebender established, Fast Eddie Costigan learned to curse back at parrots as he played the house piano; the Reverend Tom Hauptman learned to tend bar bare-chested, and Long-Drink McGonnigle discovered the margarita. Nobody even noticed them save the universe.

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Publisher's Summary

In the discreet little Key West bar that Jake Stonebender established, Fast Eddie Costigan learned to curse back at parrots as he played the house piano; the Reverend Tom Hauptman learned to tend bar bare-chested, and Long-Drink McGonnigle discovered the margarita. Nobody even noticed them save the universe.

After 10 quiet years, their laid-back existence is disturbed by a malevolent, moronic Mafioso, named Tony Donuts, Jr., intending to resurrect the classic protection racket in Key West. Jake's scientifically precocious 13-year-old daughter is threatened by the truancy officer and then, thanks to very poor accessorizing, Jake's wife, Zoey, suddenly finds herself in a place with no light, no heat, and no air. And no way home. The urgent question was where, precisely where, but that turned out to be a problem so complex that even the entire gang, equipped with teleportation, time travel, and telepathic syntony, might not be able to crack it in time.

What the Critics Say

"The wordplay flies fast and funny as always in a Callahan's romp, and the characters, regular and new, are pretty darn amusing." (Booklist) "Robinson knows how to generate tension without losing his sense of humor, a more difficult trick than you might imagine." (The New York Times)

This book is pure fantasy -- but a good fanatsy. There's a bar where everyone not only knows your name, but really cares about what goes on in your life, and has interesting (to put it mildly) life's of their own. I'm not a big fan of puns, and of all of the Callahan books this one has the fewest pans -- so I found that pleasant. But the most important part of the Callahan stories are the characters. These characters are not particularly realistic, but as you listen to their stories, you wish they were. If you had a really tight cadre of friends in college, and if your college experience was sufficiently long ago that you now remember the experience through a rose colored set of bifocals you'll relate to the story and hope that Mr. Robinson continues to produce more of them.

The problem with this book isn't that it's bad. It's not. But compared with the other books in the Callahan's series, it's pretty weak. None of the stories where shared pain is lessened, nor of shared joy, increased.

That being said....

If you've read the previous ones, read this one. If you haven't.... go back and read "The Callahan Chronicals". If you liked that... go through the others and get here eventually.

This is a fun book on its own. But I somehow missed the fact that it's a sequel. So, there were numerous unknowns I had to discover that weren't immediately obvious. I may now go back and find the original series.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. Just recently discovered Spider Robinson, and have been wallowing in whatever I can find of his. Reading them is good, but HEARING them is SO much better. If you like Callahan's Place, you'll like this one.

I loved this book. It is, as of now, the final book in the Callahan Series, and it doesn't disappoint. The narrator is great, the subject matter is great. How could anyone not love Spider Robinson's Callahan books.

got this on a whim....and after listening to part of it ,i have all of spiders callahans books in my shopping cart....in the same realm as tim robbins ( fierce invalids home from hot climates) christopher moore (stupidest angel)totaly enjoyable!!!!

I went on a Spider Robinson binge. I listened to this one right after finishing Callahan's Key. This book was just as good. I really liked the whole South Florida freaky goons aspect of the book. It reminded me of a Carl Hiassen character, and I really love the Hiassen books. All in all it was a great book, and if you have read all the other Callahan books then you definitely have to finish with this one.

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